You're Free
by Louisa4533
Summary: Hermes and Calypso share laughter and tears as Hermes leads up to telling Calypso she's free. Set after TLO. I don't own PJO or the short excerpt I used from the Last Olympian. A little bit of Hermes/Calypso. Oneshot. Complete!


Hermes materialized onto Ogygia. The island's single human occupant rose from pruning her roses, and bowed to him. Her carmel hair glistened in the sunlight, her warm brown eyes reminded Hermes of his Aunt Hestia's: friendly and welcoming.

"Hermes," she said.

"Calypso," he responded with warmth.

It was awkward for a moment. Calypso seemed to be struggling with something.

"Is something the matter, Hermes?" Calypso finally asked.

Hermes gave her a sad and weary smile that said all that she needed.

"Come, my old friend, into my cave, so that we may share stories." A crude way of putting it, Hermes thought, but an effective ice breaker.

Hermes followed her into her cave, which was cool. Calypso gracefully sat at her loom and geustered for Hermes to sit on the cot, which was as close to a couch that he would probably get. "Tell," she ordered with a bit of sternly kindness that one would only get for caring for a god who is independent elsewhere. But here, he could relax, for once, among friends.

And did Hermes tell! He told her of Percy and Mount St. Helens (of which Calypso figured out how he ended up here with her), Daedalus, the Labyrinth, his son, and the Battle of the Labyrinth. He told her of the short-lived peace, and the re-eruption that was not Percy's fault this time. He told her of the horrors of the battle with Typhon. Hermes told her of the demigods; how they defended Olympus. And as the god of storytelling, he had her enthralled in the stories by the second paragraph, so much so that she stopped weaving.

"Two Titans and a god he fought within a week, one Titan several times. Percy had convinced his cousin, a son of Hades to convince his father to help in the battle. Towards the end of the Battle of Manhattan, Hades came with Demeter and Persephone. The tides of the battle turned," he said.

"But?" Calypso questioned softly.

"But," he repeated good-naturedly, "Kronos cut off the Empire State building from the rest of the city. All of the mortals outside of the break woke, and time sped back up again. Chaos ensued. Percy's mother and step-father climbed out of their car,"

Calypso put a hand over her mouth. "His mother and step-father were there?" Calypso squeaked.

Hermes grinned in a way that made Calypso checked to make sure that her locket was still on her neck. "I quote from Percy himself: I couldn't call out. The last thing I wanted to do was bring her to Kronos's attention."

Calypso sucked in a breath at the very thought. Hermes continued: " 'Fortunately, Hades caused a distraction. He charged at the wall of force, but his chariot crashed against it and overturned. He got to his feet, cursing, and blasted the wall with black energy. The barrier held.' "

Calypso laughed. Hermes looked at her strangely. "I can almost feel what was going through Hades's head right then!"

Hermes snorted with laughter as well as he caught onto the joke. "A whole lot of cursing!" he agreed.

Hermes imitated the slick voice of Hades, causing Calypso to shiver at how creepy it was to hear Hades's voice come from good-natured Hermes's mouth. " ' 'ATTACK!" he roared. The armies of the dead clashed with the Titan's monsters. Fifth Avenue exploded into absolute chaos. Mortals screamed and ran for cover. Demeter waved her hand and an entire column of giants turned into a wheat field. Persephone changed the _dracaenae's_ spears into sunflowers. Nico slashed and hacked his way through the enemy, trying to protect the pedestrians as best he could. My parents ran toward me, dodging monsters and zombies, but there was nothing I could do to help them.' "

Calypso had now been holding her breath for two minutes. "Calypso, I can't continue the story if you pass out from lack of oxygen," Hermes said amusedly. Calypso breathed, and Hermes continued in the gravelly voice of Kronos, which was creepily easy because a part of it was his son's voice. " ' 'Nakamura,' Kronos said. 'Attend me. Giants-deal with them.' He pointed at my friends and me. Then he ducked into the lobby. For a second I was stunned. I'd been expecting a fight, but Kronos completely ignored me like I wasn't worth the trouble. That made me mad.' "

"Percy," Calypso shook her head fondly.

" 'The first Hyperborean giant smashed at me with his club. I rolled between his legs and stabbed Riptide into his backside. He shattered into a pile of ice shards. The second giant breathed frost at Annabeth, who was barely able to stand, but Grover pulled her out of the way while Thalia went to work. She sprinted up the giant's back like a gazelle, sliced her hunting knives across his monstrous blue neck, and created the world's largest headless ice sculpture.' "

" 'World's largest headless ice sculpture,' " Calypso mouthed to herself, shaking her head in disbelief.

Hermes continued: " 'I glanced outside the magic barrier. Nico was fighting his way toward my mom and Paul, but they weren't waiting for help. Paul grabbed a sword from a fallen hero and did a pretty fine job keeping a _dracaena_ busy. He stabbed her in the gut, and she disintegrated.' "

Calypso blinked. "What?"

Hermes grinned at her and continued with his excerpt of Percy's point of view.

" ' 'Paul?' I said in amazement. He turned toward me and grinned. 'I hope that was a monster I just killed. I was a Shakespearian actor in college! Picked up a little swordplay!' I liked him even better for that, but then a Laistrygonian giant charged toward my mom. She was rummaging around in an abandoned police car – maybe looking for the emergency radio – and her back was turned.' "

Calypso frowned.

" 'Mom!' I yelled. She whirled when the monster was almost on top of her. I thought the thing in her hands was an umbrella until she cranked the pump and the shotgun blast blew the giant twenty feet backward, right into Nico's sword.' How's that for an epic tale? For a long time I thought he was a desendent of me," Hermes grinned.

"What made you change your mind?" Calypso questioned.

"After hearing that, I _knew_ that he was a desendent of me!"

Calypso threw back her head and laughed as Hermes continued the story in his perspective. He told her of the struggle between Luke and Kronos and Annabeth and Percy on Olympus, which in and of itself had Hermes taking long silences, Calypso near tears herself but trying to keep it together for her old friend's sake.

"The gods walked in, expecting a battle, but all we got was two teenagers and a satyr circled around another demigod, all of them bruised and battered, two of them both physically and mentally, one just emotionally. Percy looked up after his father called to him and said, his voice cracking," here Hermes's voice cracked as well, " 'We need a shroud. A shroud for the son of Hermes."

Calypso hugged the god gently, ready at anytime to pull away, but Hermes seemed to relax in her embrace just a tiny bit.

"I wanted the one of the people who held your father's burden to tell you, but Percy somehow knew that we were close, and insisted that I told you," Hermes whispered.

"Tell me what?" Calypso said, her voice finally cracking as well.

"Percy turned down immortality for Annabeth, and instead wished for the minor gods to be shown respect, and the Titan's sons and daughters released from their prisions," Hermes said with some emotion Calypso couldn't read.

"And?" she asked.

He turned and grabbed her by the shoulders roughly, and spoke slowly, his voice cracking again. "Calypso, you're free."


End file.
